Heavy-Duty Nutcracker

A friend goes to Hawaii every year and brings back a sack or two of macadamia nuts in the shell.  When he tries to crack the nuts with a hammer, the force required is so great that he crushes the meat of the nut, too, when the shell finally yields.  He needed a special nutcracker.  Here you see it in use.

Step 1 Make teeth in the jaws

I have some 5/8 x 5/8 inch bar stock someone gave me.  It is more than strong enough to make a base for the nutcracker and also the jaws.

When machining needs to be done on a smaller piece that would be difficult to hold I like to do the machining first and then cut the piece away from the larger bar stock.  Use a thin cutting wheel to make teeth on the jaws.  It does not matter that the jaws resemble a square wave rather than saw teeth.  One of the jaws will be 1 3/4 inches long.  When the teeth have been cut for it, cut it away from the bar stock. 

Cut identical teeth for a second jaw and make them over a length of 1 3/4 inches, also.  These teeth are enough to grasp the shell of a nut and hold it while it is being cracked.

Comments

[d_Mike]

I want one, but I don't have any metalworking equipment. I have 35 - 40 macadamia nut trees. Would somebody make me one? You'd have fun making it, and I would pay for it. A reasonable price of $40 to $50, maybe?

[dniloc2cv]

Your local car muffler shop would probably do the weld job real cheap.

[jamilks]

Phil B. What an excellent project! They say that great minds think alike...heh heh...except that you took it one step further and actually did it! I had been rolling a similar sort of cracker around in my tin can of a mind for some time and seeing you do it is inspiring. In this photo the finished unit looks a lot like a pipe wrench which makes me think that I could find an old rusty one at a rummage sale or some such and modify it slightly, just add a pivot (axle) and a handle and mount it on a 2X4.
Please feel free to come by and pick up some nuts whenever you make it back again. It'd be nice to make your acquaintance. Until later, be well and thanks for the Blackhawk lead. Aloha Jamil

[Phil B]

Thank you for looking. It would take someone from Hawaii to appreciate this nut cracker fully.


A pipe wrench would make an interesting start for a nut cracker. An idea that comes to mind would be to separate the movable jaw from the wrench. Mount it facing upward so it is fixed to a 2 x 4. Turn the rest of the wrench over and bring the jaws close enough to each other. Fashion an axle to the big part of the pipe wrench near the jaw. Use the handle like a lever to open the space between the jaws and then pull the handle down to put pressure on the nut to crack it.

I looked at a map to see where your location is. We did a driving tour around the Island of Hawaii and went through your city, although I do not specifically remember it now. You must be a little up the coast from the low town where much of the town, including some school children were washed out to sea during a tsunami back in the 1930s (I think). We stopped and read several historical markers about it.

[Kiteman]

Yay for extended leverage!

[Phil B]

As one of our television personalities in the USA (Martha Stewart) would say, "It is a good thing."

[2 stroke]

i need t get chop saw

[Phil B]

For wood or metal? Here is an Instructable I did for one to cut steel using an angle head grinder--http://www.instructables.com/id/Cut-Off-Saw-from-an-Angle-Head-Grinder/

[2 stroke]

metal thanks im going to make that very clever thanks a lot

[Phil B]

From your profile I see you have a 70 amp welder. I expect that runs on 120 volts. I used a welder like that for a few years. It did amazing things, but was limited. For a project like this nutcracker someone would need more power. The actual nutcracker I did six years ago for my friend was done with a 230 volt stick welder set to about 90 amps. The nutcracker shown here was done with a 125 amp wire feed welder running on 120 volts. That is a little on the low side of what might be expected to do the job. I preheated the metal for some of the bigger welds with a MAPP gas home workshop torch for about one minute, just to give an assist to the power of the welder. That is also a useful technique when welding materials of different thicknesses. Preheat the thicker piece so both pieces respond to the arc in more similar ways.

[2 stroke]

i dont have a blow torch but im goin to get one

[Phil B]

Way back when I bought a simple propane torch when my emergency brake cable froze up in the locked on position. Eventually it began to leak and I bought a MAPP gas torch. It cost too much and I had to replace the Shrader style valve cleverly hidden under the stick-on label on the control knob. But, the MAPP gas torch is so much better than the propane torch every was. It burns hotter and you can even do light brazing with it.

[2 stroke]

i boght a propain torch yesterday its an awesome cheap peice of equipment i love it

[Phil B]

I am glad. I hope it serves you well.

[2 stroke]

bad news is im not allowed to get an oxy fuel kit my parents dont let me oh well i guess its for my safety

[Phil B]

I am sure you will have one before too many years. Your parents may even be the ones to get it for you. Life is strange that way, even though now it seems to you that you have hit a roadblock.

[2 stroke]

thanks it made me think of it in an whole different way

[2 stroke]

mapp gas is soo expensive though i need to buy one though for soldering

[Phil B]

Thank you. I am always pleased when someone makes one of my projects. I hope it works well for you. Get back to us with some photos.

[canida]

Fantastic! I've tried cracking macadamias using traditional methods, and have a) made a mess, and b) broken some nut crackers.

[Phil B]

I apologize for a nutcracker that requires welding. I know not everyone has access to a welder. But, if you have access to the tools needed to make one of these, you will really like it for cracking your macadamia nuts still in the shell.

[bowmaster]

Dang, looks like you could powder a finger bone if you got it stuck in this!!! What type of nuts are you cracking? The only thing that needs this force is a coconut, and it doesn't look like it would fit.

[Phil B]

"What type of nuts are you cracking?"

As I mentioned, this was designed to crack macadamia nuts. Their shell is about 3 to 4 millimeters thick and very hard. Anything less than a nutcracker of this caliber is probably inadequate. Yet, it can be used for a variety of other nuts, even though they are not nearly as hard as macadamia nuts.

[bowmaster]

Ahhh. Sorry, I just skimmed.

[Phil B]

I do that, too. ;-)

[rimar2000]

WOW! This is a heavy-heavy-heavy (but heavy) nut cracker!

I use the "Atlas clamp" or "dog clamp" (http://www.google.com.ar/images?q=%22pinza+perro%22&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:es-AR:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=a8GoTL-eEYLGlQek_sDADA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQsAQwAA&biw=1139&bih=506) as nutcracker, but yours is better.

[Phil B]

Thank you, Osvaldo. I never would have given a thought to making a nutcracker, except that my friend asked for something to help him with his sacks of macadamia nuts.

[rimar2000]

Wikipedia says: "The fruit is a very hard woody...". Now I understand.

Have you tried using a stick of dynamite? But surely your homemade nutcraker is more effective!

[Phil B]

The shells of the macadamia nuts are 3 - 4 millimeters thick (more than 1/8 inch) and very hard. Dynamite might work, but it could be very difficult to find the nuts after the blast!

[ve2vfd]

Now THAT is a heavy-duty nut cracker! I think sandblasting it with a really coarse medium would give it a really nice look.

[Phil B]

That is a good idea. I do not have access to sandblasting equipment, myself. Macadamia nuts are very tough to crack. 5/8 x 5/8 bar stock is more hearty than necessary, but it is what I had on my shelf.